Many internet radio stations exist on the web. There are various sources that provide listings of such internet radio stations, such as a radio network. Such radio networks aggregate various internet radio stations from a combination of sources. It is possible, however, that multiple third-party data providers may list the same station. As a result, there is the possibility of ending up with many duplicate stations when aggregating stations.
The presence of many duplicate stations degrades user experience. One approach to removing duplicate stations may include comparing each aggregated station in the network to every other station in the network to find a duplicate. However, the number of stations in a network greatly increases the complexity of determining that a station is a duplicate. For example, typical aggregated radio networks, such as Aha Radio Network, feature over 400,000 radio stations. Iterating through all of the stations and comparing each station to each other station to determine the duplicates quickly becomes computationally expensive, as such an approach has an exponential time complexity. That is, for n stations, each station is checked against the other (n−1) stations, so that the time complexity is on the order of n(n−1)=O(n2).
This disclosure recognizes the above issue and provides several approaches to address them. In particular, systems and methods for detecting duplicate radio stations are provided. In some embodiments, an example method for managing duplicate stations in a radio network includes identifying stations within a radio station network and determining which of the stations are duplicate stations. The example method may further include selecting, via automated operated content management devices or user input directed to manually operated content management devices, which of the duplicate stations to show and which of the duplicate stations to suppress from being presented to a user and selectively displaying a selected duplicate station of a group of duplicate stations depending on contractual agreements between the radio station network and one or more partners.
In other embodiments, an example method for managing duplicate radio stations in a radio network includes comparing a station within the radio station network to previously compared stations, responsive to the station not matching any station of the previously compared stations, assigning to the station a new identification number, and responsive to the station matching at least one station of the previously compared stations, assigning to the station an identification number previously assigned to the at least one station of the previously compared stations. The example method may further include determining a ranking of each duplicate station in a group of duplicate stations, during a first mode, displaying a first duplicate station of the group of duplicate stations responsive to the first duplicate station having a higher ranking than other stations in the group of duplicate stations, and during a second mode, displaying a second duplicate station of the group of duplicate stations responsive to the second duplicate station having a higher ranking than the first duplicate station and the other stations in the group of duplicate stations.
In some embodiments, an example system for managing duplicate radio stations in a radio network may include a processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by the processor to identify duplicate stations within a radio station network and determine which of the stations are duplicate stations. The instructions may be further executable to select, via automated operated content management devices or user input directed to manually operated content management devices, which of the duplicate stations to show and which of the duplicate stations to suppress from being presented to a user, and selectively present a selected duplicate station of a group of duplicate stations depending on contractual agreements between the radio station network and one or more partners.
It is to be understood that the brief description above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.